Bert Wheeler

Bert Wheeler (April 7, 1895 – January 18, 1968) was an American comedian who performed in vaudeville acts, Broadway theatre, American comedy feature films, and television. He was teamed with Broadway comic Robert Woolsey, and they went on to fame as Wheeler & Woolsey.

Biography

Wheeler was born Albert Jerome Wheeler in Paterson, New Jersey in an act with Russ Brown.

He worked with Robert Woolsey on Broadway until 1929, when a screen adaptation of their stage hit '' Rio Rita'' launched them in motion pictures.

''Rio Ritas production company, RKO Radio Pictures, was slow to see the potential of Wheeler & Woolsey. The studio signed Bert Wheeler to a movie contract during production, but not Robert Woolsey. It wasn't until the financial returns came in for ''Rio Rita'' that RKO signed both Woolsey and ingenue Dorothy Lee to appear in further films alongside Wheeler.

From their first starring vehicle, ''The Cuckoos'' (1930), Wheeler & Woolsey established themselves as a very popular comedy team, and their films were dizzy conglomerations of joke-book dialogue, awful puns, elaborate visual gags, witty musical numbers, and scantily clad chorus girls (with Woolsey offering double-entendre jokes all the while).

By 1931 Wheeler & Woolsey were so popular that RKO attempted to generate twice the Wheeler & Woolsey income by making two solo pictures—one with Wheeler (''Too Many Cooks'') and one with Woolsey (''Everything's Rosie''). This experiment failed, and they returned to performing as a team. They continued to make popular feature films until 1937, when Woolsey became too ill to work.

Director Charles Reisner tried to keep Wheeler at the studio, proposing a series of comedy features co-starring Wheeler and Dorothy Lee. The studio declined, reasoning that audiences would expect to be seeing Woolsey as well. Wheeler was released by the studio. The next scheduled Wheeler & Woolsey picture, the 1938 musical '' Radio City Revels'', was retooled as a vehicle for Jack Oakie; Wheeler's wardrobe was assigned to comic dancer Buster West.

In 1938, after Robert Woolsey died, Bert Wheeler struggled to restart his career. His friend and former film costar Dorothy Lee agreed to tour with him in a vaudeville act early that year. He landed occasional roles in movies through 1941; his last feature film, ''Las Vegas Nights'' (1941), found Wheeler working with a new partner, comedian and comedy writer Hank Ladd.

During the 1940s Wheeler became a nightclub comedian. In 1943 he worked on radio on '' The Frank Sinatra Show''. In 1945 he co-starred with Jackie Gleason in a nightclub engagement; five years later Gleason invited him to appear several times on his TV variety hour '' Cavalcade of Stars''. Wheeler's last theatrical films were two slapstick shorts for Columbia Pictures, filmed in 1950 and produced by Jules White.

Wheeler also kept up a busy schedule of live performances in nightclubs and on the legitimate stage, in such plays as '' Harvey'' (in the leading role of Elwood P. Dowd, earning rave reviews as Frank Fay's summer replacement in 1946) and '' Three Wishes for Jamie''. In 1955 Wheeler co-starred with Keith Larsen in the CBS western series '' Brave Eagle''; Wheeler played the " half-breed" Smokey Joe, known for his tall tales and tribal wisdom.

Wheeler continued to work in nightclubs, theater, and television through the 1960s, either alone or with comedian and singer Tom Dillon.

Bert Wheeler died of emphysema in New York City on January 18, 1968. He had been a member of The Lambs Club since 1927.

Filmography

(As per the AFI database)

Marriages

Wheeler was married five times. His only child, with Speer, was Patricia Anne Wheeler.
* Margaret Grae (m. 27 April 1915 to 15 November 1926) divorced.
* Bernice Speer (m. 15 April 1928 to 19 February 1936) divorced, they had 1 child.
* Sally Haines (m. 26 February 1937 to 1939) divorced.
* Patsy Orr (c1940 to c1950) divorced.
* Olga Desmondae Rieman (m. 1951 - 8 August 1966) to her death.

Home video releases

Nine of Wheeler's 21 feature films were released in a DVD collection entitled "Wheeler & Woolsey: RKO Comedy Classics Collection" in March 2013 by Warner Archive.

His 1929 Vitaphone playlet ''Small Timers'' and his 1950 Columbia shorts have not yet been released to video.

References

External links

*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Bert
1895 births
1968 deaths
American male film actors
Deaths from emphysema
Male actors from Paterson, New Jersey
American vaudeville performers
20th-century American male actors
Comedians from Passaic County, New Jersey
American male comedians